My Japanese “spear-point” marking knife is great for accurately marking out joinery. Because it has a flat face and no handle, it can register flush against a dovetail cheek, for example, to precisely lay out the mating socket, even between closely spaced tails. And the spear point allows both right- and left-hand use. Recently, I discovered another great use for the tool: glue cleanup inside the corners of boxes and other small cavities. The flat face and spear point allows the knife to cleanly slice away partially hardened beads of glue squeezout in corners where a chisel often won’t reach.
—Dave Freedman, Highland Park, Illinois
